Ministry of Consumer Affair, Food and Public Distribution is
implementing a Plan Scheme on End-to-end Computerisation of TPDS Operations on
cost sharing basis with the States/UTs

Ministry of Consumer
Affair, Food and Public Distribution is implementing a Plan Scheme on
End-to-end Computerisation of TPDS Operations on cost sharing basis with the
States/UTs. The scheme has been declared as a Mission Mode Project (MMP) by the
Government.

On fully implemented,
the Scheme will provide various citizen centric services as given below:

·Ration card related requests such as application
for new ration card, change of address, name change, deletion of member, etc.
can be dealt online through the system. This will provide beneficiaries a
convenient facility and minimise their visit to Food & Civil Supplies
offices.

·The digitised list of beneficiaries shall be
made available in the public domain on State Governments' TPDS portals. This
will introduce transparency in the identification of beneficiaries, allow
beneficiaries to check their status, encourage social audit etc.

·Through the State TPDS portal, beneficiaries can
also check status of foodgrains allocated for their respective Fair Price Shop
(FPS) each month including quantity delivered at the FPS, when delivered etc.
Beneficiaries can also enrol for SMS alert facility, so that they are informed
on mobile phones through SMS about despatch of vehicle carrying foodgrains,
receipt at the FPS, etc. Timely access to information relating to availability
of foodgrains will prevent denial of entitlement to beneficiaries, reduce their
trips to FPSs etc.

·The facility for registration of grievances and
tracking their status is also available through the State TPDS portal,
toll-free helpline numbers, etc. If the complaints are not responded in time,
the same would be escalated to senior officers for timely redressal. Under the
integrated module for grievance handling, if beneficiaries provide mobile
numbers while filing their grievances, through SMS they can receive its
acknowledgement and once the grievance is settled, they can again be informed.

(v)Computerisation of last mile activities i.e.
distribution of foodgrains at the FPS level is also being taken up. Once
automation of FPS is implemented, the genuine beneficiaries can be authenticated
through point of sale device at FPS, the sale transaction captured online etc.
so as to ensure that the entitled quantities of foodgrains reach the actual
beneficiaries.

National
Informatics Centre (NIC) is the technical partner under the scheme and has
developed a Common Application Software (CAS) as per the scheme requirements,
which has been offered to States/UTs.